Abstract

In October 1998 war clouds were gathering over the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey, in the
middle of a gruelling campaign against the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK) in its eastern
territories, accused Syria of supporting the Kurdish rebels, not least by hosting PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan in Damascus. This was the latest incident in a long history of uneasy relations
between two neighbours who have held a catalogue of territorial, ideological, political and
resource-related grievances that remained unsettled since each state’s creation. Indeed, in fi fty
years of independence, no Syrian head of state had ever visited the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Now, with the dispatch of 10,000 Turkish troops to the border and Turkish President Suleyman
Demeriel’s declaration that Hafez al-Assad, his Syrian counterpart, must face consequences for
his support of the PKK, escalation to confl ict appeared inevitable. Yet rather than falling into
the abyss, Assad relented. Ocalan was expelled, Syrian support for the PKK ended, and Turkey
and Syria quickly signed the Adana accords on 20th October, which marked the beginning of an
unexpected new chapter in the previously antagonistic relations between the two neighbours.